Oakbrook Terrace may raze a part of its history

Rare 1950s Sears prefab house in path of plan to expand municipal offices

February 10, 2013|By Leslie Mann, Special to the Tribune

Bob Shanahan, director of the Oakbrook Terrace Historical Society, is trying to preserve the society's home, a 1950s Sears prefab home, assembled by the original owner, World War II vet Edward Fik. "Here we have a house that’s an important part of architectural history," Shanahan says. (Chuck Berman, Chicago Tribune)

Unless its fans can raise money to save it, though, it soon may meet the wrecking ball.

On Tuesday, the Oakbrook Terrace City Council will decide if the Fik house, as it is known in town, will make way for a city project that includes a new police station and remodeled City Hall. An architect hired by the city to do the site plan said the lot on which the house stands would become a retention pond.

The city owns the house on 16th Street. It was built in 1951 by Edward Fik, a World War II veteran, for his bride, Lorraine. The Oakbrook Terrace Historical Society has been using it since 2008.

Unlike earlier pre-cut houses from Sears and other catalog companies, the Fik house is a prefab, said Elgin-based architectural historian Rebecca Hunter, who has written several books about catalog houses, verifies them for owners and conducts citywide house surveys.

While the earlier pre-cut houses had been delivered with thousands of parts labeled for assembly, the prefab houses arrived in larger pre-made sections to be fitted together like giant Legos. Fik family photos show Edward unloading sections of the Sears Homart brand prefab from a truck and then building the house — which had cedar shake shingles — step by step.

"(Earlier) Sears histories have no mention of Homart prefabs from this era, so historians have had to reconstruct the history," said Hunter. "For years, we thought Sears had quit making houses in 1940. Many of these later homes have been torn down to make way for bigger, newer houses. Now we have home plans and other records that prove that Sears was still in the home business as late as the 1960s."

Hunter knows of only about a dozen remaining Homarts nationwide and has authenticated six. She's found a few in Chicago that now have brick exteriors and one in Warrenville that's concrete block, but there is no record of what those houses looked like in their original forms.

"So the Fik house is an unusual insight into this era of catalog-company houses and a precursor to today's prefab houses," she said.

"Edward was just the type of person that Sears marketed these houses to — the do-it-yourselfer who was eager to build his own house to save money and do it quickly. Sears promised all it took was three 'handy' men and three days to assemble the house."

The historical society in the western suburb of about 2,100 residents hopes to work with the city to salvage the house, said director Bob Shanahan, a longtime resident and local business owner.

"We will come to (the) meeting with a plan," he said. "We understand that if the historical society becomes its owner or leases it from the city, we need to come up with the funds to pay for the house's utilities, taxes, insurance, etc."

Ideally, he said, the society would continue to use it and make it into a museum.

Shanahan asked Hunter to verify the house's origins.

"She showed us the markings on the basement joists, which match up exactly to the blueprints, number by number," he said. "We took measurements, and they matched the plans exactly."

"How exciting!" was Hunter's reaction to her tour of the house. "It isn't a fancy house like the larger prewar houses, and has no ornamentation, but that's what the new vets could afford in the 1950s. Fik was discharged from the service and eight days later was building this house so he could raise a family. It cost him about $5,500. That's the American dream."

The price was for the house only. The homeowner bought interior products separately. "But Sears wanted you to buy from them, so it gave you a detailed list of every product you should buy to complete your house," she said.

While several suburbs, including Geneva, Elgin and Downers Grove, have collections of catalog houses, the Fik house is probably the only one in Oakbrook Terrace, Hunter said.

The Fik family was part of the city's history, Shanahan said. Edward was an alderman. Lorraine was a police dispatcher, police matron, Chamber of Commerce secretary and city clerk. Her office was in the home's basement.

The original part of the Fik house is compact, with a living room, kitchen, three bedrooms and a bathroom.

"Homemakers will like the convenient room arrangements," boasted a Sears ad, which showed dad (wearing a fedora and carrying a briefcase) leaving for work, while mom (in high heels and an apron) waved from the stoop.

If the historical society buys the house, said Shanahan, it would probably remove the siding to unveil the original cedar shake shingles and rebuild the original trellised entry.

"Oakbrook Terrace is a young city, not incorporated until 1958," he said. "We didn't form the historical society until 2008. But here we have a house that's an important part of architectural history. We hope by saving it we can use it to educate future generations about this time of history and how this city got started."

Mayor Tony Ragucci would not comment about the house other than to confirm the city owned it.